Goodbye to petrol two-wheelers by 2025! Ola building core tech for e-car

 

 

Located in Pochampalli town in the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu and surrounded by shoe factories, temples, bakery shops, coconut trees, and dusty roads is the newly built Ola Futurefactory.

It takes over three hours of drive and more than 130 km from the technology (tech) hub of Bengaluru to reach the world’s largest women-only factory. It is also being expanded to become the largest two-wheeler factory in the world with an annual production capacity of 10 million units, contributing to one of every seven two-wheelers sold in the world.

Inside, the hangar-like building reverberates with grinding metallic sounds as robots work alongside humans, with songs like Blinding Lights by The Weeknd playing in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Futurefactory, spread over 500 acres, or about 378 football fields, is a fully automated plant. The facility, built on Industry 4.0 principles, has more than 3,000 robots.

SoftBank-backed Ola said it uses proprietary artificial intelligence for optimal performance. One can see many robots moving autonomously, carrying loads from one location to another on the factory floor. There are also robots working on key manufacturing process lines like painting and welding, as well as battery and motor assembly.

“This factory was built in seven months in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and chief executive officer, Ola, addressing 3,000 customers visiting the factory.

Currently, the factory produces 1,000 electric scooters per day. There are over 2,000 women employees at the factory. These women are trained and employed to run the entire production cycle – from battery to assembly.

At full capacity, Futurefactory will have a workforce of 10,000 women.